"People who don't play video games would be forgiven if they turned on an Xbox 360 and didn't realize it was a device used to primarily play games. The first screen you see on the Xbox 360 Dashboard is often a mixture of ads for all sorts of goods and services, and many times games are in the minority of ad slots. The latest redesign increased the ad space that can be sold to advertisers, and that in turn increased this problem. Let's be clear, it is a problem." No kidding. I pay for Xbox Live, yet I'm being bombarded by useless crap ads. It's ridiculous. And yet I don't stop playing. It seems as if there's a solution to this problem in there somewhere, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Do you spend your time sitting on the home screen? I know I don't. I just turn it on, wave over to what I want to do, and play that game, watch that movie or listen to my music. I certainly couldn't care less what ads are on the home screen. I don't think most other people do either.

Sounds like one of those "First World Problems" to me

When will you start to care? ok so right now you only have adverts on the screen where your games and tv shows could be put for easy access, sure thats just a extra menu to flick through.. but were do you (or anyone else draw the line).

Gold members are paying for the service up keep already. There should be no reason to show adverts (more so adverts that have no relation to the topic/screen or your past gaming experiance at hand).

So, were does microsoft intend to take it. Adverts before every game you want to play? Don't think it'll happen? What did Google do with youtube?

Already I see xbox live games on WP7 with adverts at the bottom of the screen. These are games by Microsoft branded as XBOX LIVE titles. They have adverts. Its the next logical step for them.

I won't start to care. There are ads everywhere, you can't avoid them. They are a fact of life. There are ads before and after every tv show, and during, and we pay for cable. There are ads on every page of a magazine, but we pay for the magazine. There are ads on both the inside and the outside of buses, but we pay for the bus.

I won't start to care. There are ads everywhere, you can't avoid them. They are a fact of life. There are ads before and after every tv show, and during, and we pay for cable. There are ads on every page of a magazine, but we pay for the magazine. There are ads on both the inside and the outside of buses, but we pay for the bus.

Ads are a fact of life, get over it. It's a non problem.

I beg to differ. I live in the middle of the countryside, study through distance education, and I'm gearing up to telecommute whenever possible. I run AdBlock Plus in concert with DNS-based ad-blocking and avoid podcasts and Internet radio stations with ads. The only TV I watch is Mythbusters with ads already removed. I let other family members answer the phone.

I use SpamGourmet to give out e-mail aliases that can be expired if they receive spam. (I expire maybe two aliases per year at most)

The only ads I see on any kind of significant basis are Project Wonderful ads and only because I respect and want to support Project Wonderful.

While ads are not a problem excessive ads are but not primarily for the consumer.
When the ratio of ads to actual content becomes too large the consumers will abandon your product.
So what MS seems to be doing is to make the service unusable for small-medium game developers and actual gamers and instead making it an ad service. So what will happen when all those small-medium companies stop developing games for the Xbox because it's not longer financially viable? What will happen when gamers find it excessively difficult to use the system to actually find and play games?
That won't be a fun day at the Xbox division.

Gold members are paying for the service up keep already. There should be no reason to show adverts (more so adverts that have no relation to the topic/screen or your past gaming experiance at hand).

So, were does microsoft intend to take it. Adverts before every game you want to play? Don't think it'll happen? What did Google do with youtube?

As a both PS3 and xBox360 owner, I know for what I pay.

Never experiencing downtime? Check. Not having to change my credit card? Check. Communicating with others while playing different games? Check. Heck, even communicating with others on the same friggin game (helloooo Battlefield 3)? Check.

As for advertisments before games - I have seen plenty advertising SpeedTree and Unreal Engine and PC games have another "the way it's meant to be played" ad.